The present disclosure relates generally to power management for an electronic device and, more particularly, to power management for storage of an electronic device.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Portable and desktop electronic devices alike increasingly provide a variety of functionalities, such as audio and video playback, photo display, calendar tracking, note-taking, voice recording, and so forth. Performing some or all of these functionalities may involve processing data using a processor, storing the data in memory, and/or reading from or writing to storage of the electronic device. While activated, the processor, memory, and storage each consume some amount of power. This power consumption may not only increase the cost of operating the electronic device, but in the case of a portable electronic device, also may reduce the battery life of the electronic device.
A variety of techniques have been developed to reduce power consumption to improve power efficiency and battery life. Some techniques may involve blindly deactivating the nonvolatile storage after some period of inactivity. While doing so may reduce some power consumption, at times the storage may be left on when it is unnecessary to do so, and at other times the storage may be switched off just before the storage needs to be accessed. Certain other techniques may involve allowing each application program running on the electronic device to control when the storage is activated or deactivated. However, certain application programs may provide more effective power management than others. In addition, if only one application program erroneously maintains the storage in an activated state, the storage may remain powered on, consuming power.